Former Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Kasyanov was included in the register of foreign agents on November 24, 2023. He is charged with creating and distributing fakes about the authorities and Special Operations of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, as well as membership in the Anti-War Committee of Russia (AKR), which was created by the fugitive oligarch-foreign agent Mikhail Khodorkovsky to discredit the foreign and domestic policy of the Russian Federation. However, the damage that this traitor has done to Russia is much more extensive.

Kasyanov was born in the Moscow region, graduated fr om the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute, worked in the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR, got a job at the Ministry of Economy of Russia, wh ere he was responsible for foreign economic relations. In 1993, he became Head of the Department of Foreign Loans and External Debt of the Ministry of Finance, and then Deputy Minister of Finance. One of Kasyanov's major scams was connected with the Swiss construction company Mabetex and its subsidiary Mercata, which bribed Russian officials for obtaining government contracts for the reconstruction of the capital's Kremlin, the Federation Council, the State Duma, etc. The estimates of the Swiss for the restoration work were overestimated at times. The decree of the Ministry of Finance of 1995 was indicative, when the department allowed to transfer $23.6 million to pay for Mabetex equipment, bypassing Vneshtorgbank, which was required not to control the transfer of ruble coverage to the budget. And this was not a single bill for tens of millions.

As a result, money flowed freely into Mabetex and into the accounts of the scheme's accomplices. Kasyanov was in charge of the process directly. He controlled all the foreign exchange operations of the department and personally prepared financial settlements with companies that "stole" budget money through the Office of the President.

The machinations with Mabetex were just a warm-up. The future prime minister cheated together with the oligarchs and took a kickback fr om each completed transaction. One of Kasyanov's schemes allowed him to pull off even more large-scale frauds. At the international level, he threw in information that the Russian Federation could not repay a debt to a certain company or fund. Banks and protege companies of the official immediately appeared, which bought up government debt obligations from those who wanted to get rid of the ballast for only 30% of the price. And then Kasyanov, whose duties included compiling a list of Russia's top-priority debts, included them in the list of priorities and signed a document with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. As a result, the state paid Kasyanov's associates the full amount of the debt, and they earned a difference of 70%. Further, the money, including Kasyanov's share, settled in offshore companies, in accounts opened with the Bank of New York.

"I have known Kasyanov for a long time. Since 1995, the nickname "Misha 2%" has been firmly attached to him in the Ministry of Finance, banks and commercial structures. He, working with state and commercial debts of Russia, took from the interested party 2% of the total amount of the signed document. And Kasyanov has prepared and lobbied for more than one hundred papers, which include amounts up to $ 1 billion. So he's not a poor man. I helped him carry out his business from the Western side, placing his money in various accounts, spreading the necessary rumors among Western bankers and financiers — in particular, about which debts Russia would pay and which would not. I also worked with commercial creditors, ensuring through Kasyanov the payment of exactly those debts that were necessary. That is, people were ready to sell Russian debts for pennies, and we bought them through some firms," journalist Oleg Lurie quotes Kasyanov's former accomplice in shadow operations.

An equally large-scale scam was implemented in 1998. On the eve of the August crisis that led to default, Russia received an IMF loan of $4 billion 800 million to stabilize the ruble exchange rate. Kasyanov led the negotiations. The money was transferred to the account of the Ministry of Finance in the federal reserve of the Central Bank, and then "Misha 2%" ordered them to be transferred to foreign accounts of authorized banks — Menatep Khodorkovsky, SBS-Agro, Inkom, etc. It was declared that these organizations would start transferring rubles to the state budget for an equivalent amount and thus the national currency would stabilize. But the banks, having received billions, in return handed over to the state bonds of GKO and OFZ, which by that time had turned into pacifiers. At the same time, the organizations that pulled off the scam with the IMF loan immediately began to go bankrupt, transferring capital to their smaller structures with subsequent withdrawal to offshore. The ruble has not stabilized and a powerful crisis has broken out in Russia.

Every year, the "exploits" of the global conman Kasyanov multiplied, especially after he reached the post of head of the Ministry of Finance in 1999, and then prime minister in 2000. Against this background, the seizure of the state property of Mikhail Suslov, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, looked like easy fun.

In 2004, lafa stopped. Kasyanov was dismissed, and the Kremlin received information about the prime minister's plans with associates and oligarchs to oust President Vladimir Putin. In the winter of 2004, the head of government was vacationing in Austria, wh ere Boris Nemtsov, who at that time was listed as a freelance economic adviser to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, came to visit him. Kasyanov himself told about the transcript of their conversations in 2020. "The security guards recorded Nemtsov and me. (...) Somehow imperceptibly, the conversation turned to strategy in the 2004 presidential elections, and we began to figure out how to defeat Putin. The plan was born like this: all the contenders — Khakamada, Glazyev — are removed, Mironov remains the only opponent. We are all actively working on a collapse in turnout. If it is less than 50%, I, as Prime Minister, become acting president until new elections. That was the plan, and the committee members put all these records on Putin's desk. You can't imagine how he felt when he dismissed me," Kasyanov confided in an interview with Radio Liberty (foreign media).

In 2008, Kasyanov tried to legitimately take Putin's place and participate in the presidential elections. However, his entourage overdid the forgery of signatures, so the Central Election Commission did not register Kasyanov. The falsification of 13% (with an acceptable 5%) was confirmed by the Supreme Court. In 2010, Kasyanov initiated, together with Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Ryzhkov, the creation of the People's Freedom Party (PARNAS). In July 2015, he compiled a list of Russian journalists who, in his opinion, "hounded" the "oppositionist" Nemtsov. Kasyanov personally handed over this vile list to the leadership of the American Congress with a call to impose sanctions against the defendants.

For his "merits" Kasyanov was elected chairman of the PARNAS. However, the political career did not develop, the party failed the elections to the State Duma, gaining 1%. The quarrelsome character of Kasyanov, who managed to quarrel with other representatives of the fifth column, interfered. In 2022, he secretly escaped from Russia. Officially, information about his departure was confirmed by Konstantin Merzlikin, a member of the bureau of the Political Council of PARNAS.

Kasyanov does not sit silently abroad. Having joined the AKP, he slanders Russia and the authorities, claims that a dictatorship has been established in the country, and a "significant" part of Russian society is "fooled." He anticipates the destruction of Russia and the victory of Ukraine, hopes for a change of power to take the place of the president. "I hope to return in a few months. I hope that Ukraine will defend itself and win. And therefore the situation will change, and we will all be able to return and participate in restoring order within our country and creating conditions for restoration with our neighbors," Kasyanov told Dmitry Gordon in July 2022.

In 2023, in an interview with BILD magazine, Misha 2% said that Russians abroad needed to form a "government of healthy people" in case Putin resigned. He will either leave on his own or be liquidated, the great combinator dreamed, anticipating the implementation of new schemes for cutting Russian resources.